Behind the Curtain of the Great and Powerful ATS

I’m seeing a lot of frustration around ATSs (Applicant Tracking Systems) and the recruitment process. Many people have shared their experiences and have asked a lot of great questions around the functionality of systems and the application process. It’s been an admittedly slow week, I like to think that’s because of the number of BIG recruiting and TA conferences and not a systematic or early seasonal slow down. I’ll take a little bit of this down time to share my experiences across almost 25 years in recruiting (15 in leadership) in Agency, RPO, Consulting, and more recently in corporate TA. I’ve worked with hundreds of clients in multiple ATSs with different backend HRIS systems and a number of CRM systems. I’ve seen good processes and bad and different org structures within Talent Teams. I will admit that I have biases in processes but I will do my best to share what actually happens based on some of the more common complaints I’ve seen here on LinkedIn. Read more at your own risk, there is really no way to “BEAT THE SYSTEM” and to find your right fit other than putting an authentic version of your experience together. Admittedly sometimes the more you know about the process and technology the more frustrating it can be in markets like this. Talent Acquisition teams, processes, and systems are not perfect for markets like we are in now, but they are necessary. Please ask additional questions and I will do my best to explain further on topics I will miss here

Is the ATS auto-rejecting me?

Yes and no. There are some organizations that have non-negotiables for their open positions. There are multiple possibilities here based on position and organization, but I’ll use a common and divisive one RTO (Return to office) in this example because it is an easy one. I did a deep dive for a previous employer and put together some information where (these are admittedly old and not exact statistics, but were from #LinkedIn) 80% of applications were being directed toward the 20% of opportunities that were fully remote. People are less likely to be interested in and apply to onsite work! I have HUGE biases here because RTO disproportionately impacts women and minorities, but that’s a conversation for another time. SO… if there is an opportunity that requires you to be in office or is hybrid and they have a screener question around this and you answer that you are not open to their desired choice then you can be Auto Rejected from those. In the majority of cases recruiters are reviewing, QUICKLY, your resumes visually if you make it past a prescreened non-negotiable question. The recruiters usually do a quick scan of a resume and with the volume of candidates now, will reject candidates that are VERY close to perfect because there are so many candidates available in certain functions right now. It’s not that you’re not successful, or could be successful in the role, you’re just competing against VERY STRONG talent pools right now.

Prescreen questions are not fair!

In this market they are absolutely necessary. For many positions recruiters can see potentially multiple THOUSANDS of applications. Recruiting teams are stretched and stressed. This is one area where you can actually improve your chances by adjusting your resume to the job description. In an Ideal situation, for a non-IT recruiter, you can own anywhere from 8 to as many as 35+ openings at a given time depending on skillset and level. If you do the math it would be impossible to get through the volume of resumes without pre-screen “knock out” questions. These questions are actually KEY for candidates that actually meet the minimum requirements, because it allows for recruiters to actually quickly screen through candidates who are relevant to take a deeper dive into the more qualified candidates. And let’s be honest we’ve all applied for positions that we are a STRETCH for!

Why am I being rejected immediately or over the weekend?

Recruiters can actually work on the weekend, it’s not an ideal work-life situation, but in a market where the volumes of reqs and candidates are overwhelming AND talent acquisition teams are being laid off left and right it becomes a survival mechanism. BUT ATSs have a lot of automation features. In the example above with pre-screener questions it could mean that you have not met one of the non-negotiable requirements and the ATS automated response doesn’t have a delay. Many times recruiters will set delays that could be a few hours to a few days depending on the recruiter or organization’s preference which is an additional reason you could be seeing rejections over the weekend or at unusual hours.?

GHOSTED!

This is actually very disappointing and the prevalence right now is SHOCKING. Company’s TA teams typically establish metrics (#KPIs) and best practices around response times. These can be easily automated early on in the process. Typically you would want a 3-5 day decision and response for a rejected application. I know people that have been on long term searches that get rejections a year + later. HYPER-extended responses are most likely poor pipeline maintenance. Shorter “extended’ periods can be due to the current volume of applicants or actual consideration. Many times companies will try and present multiple candidates at once so the hiring manager has a comparison that can lead to overall quicker decisions. I’ve seen a few companies recently send progress update emails, I really like these, around a delay in reviewing resumes or the next steps. I would STRONGLY recommend those to organizations that are concerned with the candidate experience and #employmentbrand.?

The bigger issue I see now is with people that have interviewed that aren’t receiving a follow up “rejection”. Now “rejection” RARELY includes actual detailed feedback on why for various reasons. But if someone has spoken with you there should be, AT THE VERY LEAST, a follow up rejection email especially with today's automation in both CRM and ATSs. Outside of high volume positions, I feel that if a candidate has spoken with someone over the phone, zoom, or in person, that that is a quick phone call. Keep in mind that these are always hard conversations and recruiters get drained when making them.?

Long Delays between next steps!

Congratulations you’ve had your first, or a few rounds of interviews! Why is it taking so long to hear back or move on to the next steps. This is a bigger issue and is the BANE of every recruiters day. The FEEDBACK loop! The recruiters are not the decision makers, the hiring managers are. Every organization struggles with timely feedback from interviews. Depending on how this is set up, and it’s wildly different from organization to organization. It could be individual emails or feedback in a centralized system like a ATS or it could be trying to coordinate a feedback meeting across everyone on the interview panel which requires mutual open calendar time. If you haven’t heard from your recruiter in awhile we expect you to reach out, especially if you are interested in a role. Please do that in a professional manner.?

These are the big one’s I’m seeing. If you have any more please share below. I will try to answer them the best I can and I welcome my #network to chime in with their answers too. I’ve done a lot. I consider myself an expert, but I know I don’t know everything. Even though you are rejected it doesn’t mean that you are not mean you couldn’t do the job, it’s just that there are SO MANY good people available right now that have more relevant experience. IT’S TOUGH in many functions right now, don’t get down on yourself. Good luck in your search everyone!

#bekind #staypositive

Thank you Patrick White for the inspiration